


We Can Do This

by islandgirl



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: 911week2020, Action, Gen, Hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:41:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25159411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/islandgirl/pseuds/islandgirl
Summary: From out of the tub, a head peeks up. And while they called her a teenager, the big, scared, brown eyes staring at Buck can’t belong to anyone older than thirteen. Too damn young to be this scared, in this much danger. Too damn young to have to save her own life.For 911 Week 2020 Day 3 Prompt: "We Can Do This" + hurt
Comments: 8
Kudos: 84





	We Can Do This

“Let’s go, Buck. You’re running out of time,” Bobby’s voice calls through the radio.

The fire is roaring, house full involved when Buck ascends to the second floor looking for their 9-1-1 caller, a teenaged girl by the name of Carrie. There are flames hungrily eating up everything they can touch, carpets, door frames, wallpaper; nothing is safe from it’s ravaging path. 

“One more door to go, Cap,” Buck tells him, already moving towards the last door at the end of the hallway. “Not gonna be able to make it back down, stairs are gone.”

“Eddie’s raising the aerial now,” Bobby tells him calmly.

Buck takes a breath to steady himself, the intensity of the heat finally getting to him. He can feel his heart hammering in his chest and has to fight hard against the surge of adrenaline rushing through his veins. Stay calm and in control, he reminds himself as he tests the door for heat. It’s hot, but not blistering like everything else. If there’s fire here, it’s just starting.

Without another hesitation, Buck kicks in the door and enters the large bedroom at the side of the house. Fire is just beginning to crawl along the walls, shooting out of the heating vents. Like the rest of the house, it won’t be long before it all becomes fuel for the flames. He needs to find Carrie and get the both of them out of here as fast as possible.

“LAFD! Anyone in here?” Buck calls out as he makes his way into the room. For a moment, only the roar of the fire and the buzz of adrenaline in his ears can be heard. “Carrie? Are you in here?”

He knows that when it comes to danger people, especially kids, tend to hide. So he ducks down and looks under the bed. Nothing. He pulls open the closet doors and shifts the clothes around. No sign of a teenage girl. Glancing around, he sees only one other place she could be. There’s a half-open pocket door to his right leading to what he can only assume is a bathroom.

“Carrie?” he calls out again, shoving the door open the rest of the way. This time he hears it, a small whimper coming from inside the small bathroom. From inside the bathtub. “It’s okay, I’m a firefighter. Let’s get you to safety, okay?”

Buck steps into the bathroom and instantly regrets the decision. While the bathroom itself isn’t on fire, everything else around it and below it most certainly is. The moment his boots hit the linoleum, he can feel it give way just a little. His stomach plummets. Not good. Not good at all. He’s too heavy to cross the floor, afraid he’ll bust right through and take them both down. No, she’s going to have to come to him.

“Carrie? Can you look at me?” Buck slowly slides his feet back so he’s once again standing in the doorway and on more solid ground. 

From out of the tub, a head peeks up. And while they called her a teenager, the big, scared, brown eyes staring at Buck can’t belong to anyone older than thirteen. Too damn young to be this scared, in this much danger. Too damn young to have to save her own life. 

“Good,” he fights to keep his voice calm and even despite the groaning and moaning of the house around them. They are quickly running out of time. “My name is Buck, I’m here to get you out, okay?”

The little head nods, daring to poke up a little higher. Her blonde hair is messy and streaked with soot and what he can see of her skin is flushed from the heat, but other than that she seems unharmed. 

“You doing okay over there? Are you hurt?”

“No,” Carrie shakes her head, eyes watery like she’s holding back tears. “I just wanna get out of here.”

“Okay. We are gonna work on that, okay?” Buck reassures her. “Can you climb out of the tub for me?”

For a moment, it looks like she’s going to. Her hands grasp the edge of the tub and she starts to pull herself up further. Then her eyes roam over the bathroom and the way flames are starting to curl out of the heating vent just a few feet away, licking at the shower curtain and the wall. The floor gives another moan and Buck knows he needs to get her moving.

“Buck,” comes Bobby’s voice through the radio, this time the warning clear in his voice. This is Buck’s last warning before Bobby gives him the order to pull back.

“I found her,” Buck replies quickly. Now that he’s got her in his sights, he’s not leaving this house without her. “We’ll be at the window in a minute.”

Buck’s kept his eyes on her the entire time, watching as she slowly shrinks back. He’s losing her. If she ducks back down below the lip of the tub … Buck takes a deep breath and focuses solely on Carrie. He holds his hand out to her in an attempt to get her to make a move. 

“It’s okay. Just climb out of the tub and we can get out of here,” Buck tells her.

“Why are you all the way over there?” Carrie asks, her voice so tiny and scared that it nearly breaks his heart.

He freezes for a moment, unsure of how to respond. Even though it’s scary, he has to tell her the truth. 

“I can’t cross the floor.” Buck shifts his weight forward a little, experimentally. The floor dips under the toe of his foot and stills any other movement. “I’m too heavy, I’ll fall through.”

Carrie’s eyes widen in fear as she looks between Buck and the warping tiles between them. She shrinks back in fear and Buck can feel his control on the situation slipping. He needs to turn this around fast.

“You are light enough, Carrie. I need you to come to me, okay?” Buck beckons her forward with his hands. “You can do this, Carrie. I’m right here.”

“No, I can’t.” She shakes her head vigorously, backing up from the edges of the tub.

“Yes. Yes you can. We can do this.” Buck encourages.

Behind him, the fire rages on in the bedroom. He can feel the intense heat pressing in against his back. 

“We need to go, Carrie. You can do this. I need you to climb out of the tub,” Buck’s voice tightens as panic starts to kick in. They’re being boxed in by the fire and if they don’t move, they’re going to be consumed by it.

“No. No, I can’t,” Carrie is crying now, coughing and sobbing as the smoke starts to build thicker in the air. “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.”

The wall near the tub is now on fire, the shower curtain starting to smolder and burn. The bedroom behind them is fully engulfed now and no longer an escape route. Even if he can get Carrie across the floor to him, he has no way to get them out now.

“What window are we coming to Buck?” Eddie’s voice cuts through the roar in his brain and snaps him back to focus.

“Third,” Buck forces out. “Third window, southwest corner.”

It doesn’t take long before he sees movement at the window a second before the glass shatters. Carrie shrinks down even further in the tub with another cry of fear, but all Buck can focus on is their only way out. Eddie is waiting at the top of the ladder at the edge of the window. As soon as Buck can get her there, he knows Eddie will grab her and pull her to safety. Buck just has to get her there. That means Buck has to get to her first.

The bathroom is small, maybe twelve feet between where Buck is standing and the window. It’s not a far distance, could probably cross it in three long strides if he tried. It’s not the distance that’s the problem. Buck’s not sure how stable it is, if he can even make it the five feet to the tub let alone cross the rest of the open floor to the window. It’s not like he has a choice though. Across the floor is the only way to get them out.

“Okay Carrie,” Buck calls out, trying to get her attention. He needs her aware of the plan. The last thing he needs is for her to panic and fight him mid-run. “I’m going to come and get you okay? But we need to move quick so I need you so stand up. Okay?”

The blonde head nods, small whimpers still escaping from her trembling lips. Mercifully though, Carrie manages to push up on shaky arms and stands in the tub, wrapping them around her chest like she’s holding herself together. Buck knows she’s terrified, he is too, but they have to move.

“Good job, Carrie. We can do this, okay?”

Buck doesn’t wait for another response, just starts to move. He charges across the floor, stomach swooping low at the way the tile gives too easily beneath his boots. He doesn’t stop though, just hooks an arm around Carrie’s waist and sweeps her over his shoulder. She lets out a squawk, hands fisting tight into his turnout coat. By some miracle, Buck makes it to the window where Eddie is waiting. He looks surprised by the way Buck all the shoves the girl out at him, but quickly gets hold of her and secures her on the ladder.

He has one moment to watch, to make sure Carrie is safe and secure in Eddie’s grip on ladder before the floor beneath his left boot starts to give way. Buck reaches out, hands desperately scrambling for purchase on everything in sight to keep from falling. His fall is short, landing on his butt on the bathroom floor with his left leg stuck through a hole in the floor. Immediately, he tries to push back up and feels a sharp spike of pain drive through his leg, enough to steal his breath and make the world around him go fuzzy for a moment.

“Buck!”

Buck jerks his head back as the world comes sharply back into focus. He looks up at the window to find Eddie leaning in the window, poised like he’s ready to drop down on to the floor next to Buck. Before he can make that mistake, and possibly send them both into the inferno raging below, Buck holds up a hand to stop him.

“No. Don’t,” Buck barks out, worry making the words sharper than he intended. It works though because Eddie pauses. There’s still a frown marring his face as he stares at Buck.

“Floor won’t hold us both,” Buck tries to reason with him. The only reason he hasn’t fall through the floor yet is that he must’ve landed on a beam. It was pure luck. He’s not willing to take that chance with Eddie.

“Can you pull yourself up?” Eddie asks. He’s still leaning too far into the window, but he’s no longer looking like he’s going to come flying the rest of the way in so Buck will take the win.

“Tried,” he answers around grit teeth. He once again tries to shift and pull his leg out of the hole. He manages to get a few inches free before the pain threatens to suck him under. “Hurts,” he grunts out.

Eddie’s face is pensive for a moment as he regards Buck. “I’m gonna have to pull you up,” he finally decides. “It’s gonna hurt.”

Buck just nods his head resolutely. He knows it’s going to but it’s better than the alternative. Without answering Eddie, Buck simply raises his arm. Eddie inches ever closer through the window and loops a rope around Buck’s waist. Once the rope is secure, Eddie backs out of the window until just his head is poking through, enough that he can monitor Buck and the progress of his trapped leg.

“Okay Chim. Go,” Eddie calls out a moment before the slack on the rope tightens.

Buck pushes his hands against the floor again, pushing up with all his might, rising up as far as he can on his own before the rope takes over and starts to free him. His leg is halfway out of the hole when his knee catches on something just below the surface of the floor. There’s a sickening snap, a spear of pain, and the world whites out around him.

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I know ... where's the comfort? It's here: [What Matters Most](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25418416)
> 
> Find me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/cptmeatball)!


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